99% Perspiration

Advice from today's creative and artistic professionals – FOR tomorrow's.
99% Perspiration is a weekly podcast bringing you interviews and advice from a range of people working in the creative/artistic world. Thomas Edison wrote that genius is 1% inspiration, but 99% perspiration. We want to give you the confidence and the know-how to turn your creative calling into a career.
If you're interested in radio, TV, film, literature, fine art, social media, content marketing, advertising, web design, graphic design, theatre, acting, directing, production... 99% Perspiration is the podcast for you.
Our website is 99podcast.com & our Twitter is @99Podcast
Produced by @JaySykesMedia

Produced & presented by Jay Sykes & Mark Stuart Bell Music production by Jed Stoker

About 99% Perspiration:

A weekly podcast, with interviews & advice advice from today's creative and artistic professionals - FOR tomorrow's. We're here to help you gain the inspiration, the confidence & the know-how to turn your creative calling into a career.

A weekly podcast, with interviews & advice advice from today's creative and artistic professionals - FOR tomorrow's. We're here to help you gain the inspiration, the confidence & the know-how to turn your creative calling into a career.

Both our guests on this week's episode studied creative degrees at university, before pursuing creative careers with media companies based in London.

Alicia Myers is currently the Insight Executive for BBC Worldwide. Alicia's role involves leading a research team in a creative way; turning figures and facts into stories, to help BBC Worldwide sell their programmes worldwide.

But when we chatted a few weeks ago, she was about to enter her final week in the same role at Time Inc. UK, the magazine publisher behind InStyle, NME, Wallpaper, What's On TV, and a handful of other well-loved magazines.

Alicia shares with us how she finds creativity, how to develop a thick skin, and why PR and research roles can be ideal if you love storytelling.

Ganesh Raois an Output Producer with Sky News, having recently joined their team in early October. With a solid passion in hard news journalism, Ganesh moved from Suddan, India to study journalism in the UK, and didn't stop until he found a place in the industry.

You can hear from Ganesh about how industry experience helped him on the way, and what made the young graduate stand out at the interview with Sky News.

This weekly podcast brings you interviews & advice advice from today's creative and artistic professionals - FOR tomorrow's. We're here to help you gain the inspiration, the confidence and the know-how to turn your creative calling into a career.

Joanna Makepeace-Woods knows a thing or two about powerful pitching. She gained her previous role, Talent Development Manager at the University of Sunderland, through pitching it to the staff there. They were so impressed, so inspired, that they devised the role specifically for Joanna, and she's been there ever since.

Now Joanna is the Employability Manager with the university’s Arts, Design and Media faculty, and works with graduates and students to get them into the workplace. She understands well the importance of networking, and getting your name out there.

I’ve listened to your feedback - some of you told me you wanted to hear more from people who help develop creatives, rather than just from creatives themselves; and Joanna Makepeace-Woods is just that person.

Joanna also worked in multiple TV roles, mostly in the production office, so this episode should be particularly interesting if you're interested in getting more stuck in with TV.

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A little aside:

I mentioned here in the description (but alas, not on the podcast) last episode that my radio drama, SeaBurn, was been nominated for "Best Speech Programming" at the Student Radio Awards 2015, one of 8 nominations from Spark FM in Sunderland, the community radio station I volunteer with.

I'm hugely happy to report that SeaBurnreceived a bronze award for "Best Speech Programming"; we couldn't have lost out to a better programme though, the incredible Both Sides of Dying by radio producer Jordy Cernik took the gold. And Spark itself received a bronze for "Best Radio Station". A very good day, and thanks for your support, everyone!

On the 7th October, the Student Radio Association held training days around the country, inviting various radio professionals to give talks about their work, share their stories, and offer advice to tomorrow's radio professionals.

And that's exactly what 99% Perspiration is all about! We're were lucky enough to be invited to the North East & Yorkshire training day. So if you're interested in heading into radio/audio work - whether it's presenting, producing, journalism, or voice over - then listen on. This is the podcast for you.

I'm pretty excited to announce that my radio drama, SeaBurn, has been nominated for "Best Speech" at the Student Radio Awards 2015. This nomination is one of 8 from Spark FM in Sunderland, the community radio station I volunteer with. So, wish us luck!

First up, I just have to say a huge thank-you to everyone who's stuck with us over the past couple of months - who've asked me "what's happened with the podcast?", or "when's the next episode coming out?"

I recently began working as an Academic Tutor at the University of Sunderland. That, alongside my arts role with ArtWorks-U, alongside my other radio projects, has found me working approx. 52 hours a week. So I've found myself stretched. But I'm determined to keep 99% Perspiration going, and going strong!

Thank you so much for sticking with the podcast, for listening, and for being so patient with me. Cannot tell me how much it means to me.

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This week's guests:

"I have worked damn hard to get where I am. And I have hustled... A hustler just does stuff, they get stuff done, by any means possible. And I think that's my superpower."

Tiffany Rouge is the Marketing and Events Coordinator for the Hotel Richmond in Adelaide. Since this episode of 99% Perspiration was recorded, Tiffany has become a radio producer at Fresh 92.7.

"In a way, making a show-reel is redundant... You're better off putting your work into a big portfolio, on a website, because then people will be able to see on a project by project basis what your skills are."

Ed Westman is a freelance Video Content Creator based in Sunderland. At the moment, he’s the video producer with the University of Sunderland’s Marketing and Communications department.

And finally, our music this week is kindly donated by Huddersfield based dubstep band "MXI" - on Twitter, they are @WeAreMXI.

After 30 years working in a non-creative industry, Diane Gray now manages the community radio station Hive Radio, based in Jarrow, UK. In 2014, Diane won the silver Charles Parker Prize for her radio documentary; and is now working on radio drama alongside her role at Hive.

Richi Jones is a singer/songwriter, and music production student based in the Midlands, UK. This year, Richi won the well-recognised national Open Mic competition, and he's currently working on his new EP.

Laura Lucas is a leadership & business coach, and runs Inspirential, which specialises in helping ambitious business owners, leaders and professionals set & achieve their goals. You can find Laura on Twitter @1LauraLucas.

Alan Parkinson is a self-published novel writer living in Sunderland. He's currently working on book number 2, Idle Threats, and you can check out his first novel Leg It.

Dan Makaveli is the co-founder of Media Savvy Training Solutions, a community interst company based in Sunderland. They deliver media training to people around the region, and Dan has a great deal of advice & insight to share - and, we chat about their new upcoming project, which launches in August - Media Savvy Ghana Training Academy.

Jamie Benson is a dancer, choreographer, dance instructor and PR specialist in New York City. A huge advocate of the power of effective PR and marketing, Jamie has a ton of essential advice for anyone interested in working creatively; especially dancers.

Sean Rameswaram produces Sideshow, a Studio 360 podcast. It's a project shared between New York's public/speech radio station WNYC, and Public Radio Internation; "the greatest podcast in the world". It's awesome. You should check it out.

Clare Jenkins co-owns Pennine Productions, a UK-based radio production company. With a back-catalogue of dozens of features and interviews on BBC radio, particularly in connection with Women's hour, Clare has great insight into the industry and radio feature production. But her real passion is stories.

Alex Burgess is a presenter at the UK commercial radio station Capital FM North East, and owner of band promotions and management company Lonewolf Promotions. She currently divides her time between managing three bands, coordinating live music gigs, and as part of the Capital team.

Kylie Ann Ford is an actor from South Shields, UK. She was recently part of Northern Stage's North 15 programme, performs around the country with various theatre companies, and can next be seen in Theatre Space North East's Hamlet, from the 2nd to 5th of July.

Iain Rowan is the facilitator of Holmeside Writers, a collective writing group based in Holmeside Coffee, Sunderland, UK. The group meet fortnightly to hang out, critique each others work, and enjoy writing with/around each other.

This episode features a 30 second audio advert for Homeside Coffee (@HolmesideCoffee), an awesome independent coffee house in Sunderland, UK. If you don't visit for their own home-brewed coffee alone, they also host monthly arts nights, book clubs, film clubs & writers' groups.

This episode features a 30 second audio advert for Kelly Cairns (@KellyCairns), who provides Virtual Assistance for businesses in the North East of England. She was recently nominated for "Northern VA of the Year". --> If you or your business are interested in an audio advert, do get in touch!

Music by Kevin MacLeod. You can support Kevin and other music artists by visiting freemusicarchive.org

Our philosophy: "They say that creative work is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. With interviews and insight from those working in the creative industries, this podcast will guide you through the world of self-promotion, the art of pitching and the persistence that can help turn your calling into a career."

This episode features music by Kevin MacLeod and Steve Combs. You can support them and other music artists by visiting freemusicarchive.org